Two historic mansions add 'For Sale' to their stories

Two homes with deep ties to metro Atlanta’s civic evolution, and each other, are looking for buyers.

Last week, marketing efforts began for Windcrofte, the Buckhead home of businessman and former gubernatorial candidate Guy Millner, and the Midtown home of pivotal Atlanta architect Henri Jova, who designed Colony Square and the Carter Center among many Atlanta landmarks.

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Rich Addicks / AJC

Windcrofte, the historic home on Tuxedo Road in Buckhead, once owned by Coke magnate Robert Woodruff, is for sale at a price of $13.9 million.

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Rich Addicks / AJC

The entrance to the midtown home of noted Atlanta architect, Henri Jova, which is being marketed for $1.9 million. The red door is the only color used on the exterior, which is mostly off-white brick.

Coca-Cola CEO and philanthropist Robert Woodruff also owned Windcrofte from 1945 until his death in 1985.

Woodruff’s legacy played a part in Ginny Millner’s initial attraction to Windcrofte, and influenced the couple’s tenure in the house, she said.

“This house is to be used for events,” she said.

In addition to her weekly Bible study events, the Millners have opened Windcrofte for a wide variety of charity fundraisers, starting with the Atlanta Symphony’s annual Designer Showhouse in 1989, as well as a variety of private celebrations.

“We’ve been good caretakers and [hosted] some charitable activities that reflected Robert Woodruff’s role as a benefactor,” Guy Millner said.

Now that they are well beyond traditional retirement age, the Millners said they are ready to downsize and pass Windcrofte with its traditions to a younger, energetic family. Realtors Wes Vawter and Betsy Akers of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty are handling the $13.9 million listing.

Other than some updated decor, the Millners said they are proud that they changed little about the fundamental structure of the house from the Woodruff era. Instead they channeled their energies into preservation of the eye-catching architectural flourishes that grace Windcrofte’s classical Regency design, such as the inlaid marble foyer, scalloped living room molding and burnished oak floors that have carried dozens of world-famous feet.

Guests have included actor Eddie Fisher, Sen. Robert Dole, actor-activist Christopher Reeve, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Ruth Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham. Woodruff conducted informal meetings of the Coca-Cola board in the lower level of the 14,000-square-foot home, according to Guy Millner.

The Jova connection

The one major alteration the Millners made to the seven-acre estate in 1997 was the pool and pool house where they have hosted wedding receptions and wiled away countless happy hours with children and grandchildren.

Aspiring to build a complex that would equal the stature of the main house, the Millners turned to their friend Henri Jova of Jova Daniels Busby, one of Atlanta’s premier design firms.

As Ginny Millner recalled it, deciding where to put the complex required more than a year of discussion as they mulled whether to adjoin it to the house with a backyard terrace or give it a more secluded space farther back on the estate.

Privacy won.

After that, Jova and the Millners found perfect accord on a coastal design with international flair inspired by Portuguese architecture.

An early sketch shows the pool house topped with a dome, but the finished product carries a more traditional peaked roof. Both, however, feature a breezy portico with casual dining and seating areas flanking a service counter with shelves and storage.

Two small rooms and a full bath tuck discretely behind arched doorways leading from the portico.

“I was very proud of that little project,” Jova said in a telephone interview from his home in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Jova said he had a “penchant” for the residential projects his firm undertook over the years, even though he is best known for his larger commercial and civic projects.

Personal project

And his longest-running residential project was the Midtown complex just listed with Realtor Debra Johnston of Beacham & Company for $1.95 million.

The Mentelle Avenue home first appealed to Jova in 1960 because it was cheap, he said.

“I was looking for a place to live. I had no money. I was an improvident businessman,” Jova said.

As Jova’s fortunes improved, he expanded the home into an L-shaped complex grouped around a gated courtyard. Renovations over the years molded it into an airy collection of distinctive spaces with high ceilings, elongated windows and geometric symmetries.

“I wanted a simple, modern house,” Jova said. “I had a lot of furniture from my family, and that furniture was all very traditional. I needed a house that would serve as a good background for a collection of antiques and paintings.”

Jova spent countless creative hours in the intimate tiled studio just off the master suite. There, he painted more than 50 canvases now distributed among collectors.

And he entertained frequently, co-hosting with his partner of more than 30 years, David Rinehart.

“It’s amazing how many people you can get in it,” Jova said.

The most recent renovation, completed since Jova and Rinehart moved to West Palm Beach, was designed to perfect the home’s utility and flexibility. Jova calls it “a display house.”

“It would be a marvelous place for a collector of paintings,” Jova said. “It has wonderful light coming in.”

Hoping to reverse Midtown’s stagnation, Jova helped organize the Midtown Neighborhood Association in 1963.

Their first initiative, he said, was to sponsor a home-improvement contest, which he persuaded then-Mayor Ivan Allen to judge.

Now, he is gratified to see his neighborhood blossoming into one of the city’s most sought-after locations.

“It took a long time,” he said.